The
sunshine made it difficult to photograph over a hundred Common
Spotted Orchids and about eight Southern
Marsh Orchids on the southern bank of
Mill Hill Cutting. The Pyramidal
Orchids were just emerging on the north
edge of Frampton's Field.

3
June 2018In
the late morning, three Common Spotted
Orchids and Ox-eye
Daisieswere seem immediately amongst
the meadow-like verges at Erringham Gap on the Downs
Link Cyclepath.

21
August 2017A
few spikes of Autumn Lady's Tresses
(an orchid) had just appeared on the top plateau of Mill
Hill, just north of the Reservoir, on
a grey overcast afternoon. They were small
and difficult to spot.

With
the ninth successive day of windsurfer weather the summer
flowers
were blown about in the Fresh Breeze (Force
5). Common
Spotted Orchids and Pyramidal
Orchids were commonly
in flower on the verges of the cyclepath
between Erringham Gap and the Cement Works. The orchids
bright colours stood out through the growing green vegetation. One spike
of Bee Orchid
was spotted. Its flowers had twisted.Wild
Flower Report

31
May 2017

On
a warm sunny afternoonI
cycled the Downs Link Cyclepath from Old
Shoreham to Upper Beeding where I discovered three species of orchid
in flower on the verges. There were
frequent Common Spotted Orchids
by Erringham Gap,over
a hundredsouth
of the Cement Works acccompanied by at least two spikes of the Common
Bee Orchid. On Anchor
Bottom I spotted scores of Common Fragrant
Orchids on the north-facing southern bank.
Returning by the Downs Link Cyclepath I spotted a budding Pyramidal
Orchid near the Flyover.

Of
most interest were scores of Fragrant Orchids,
Gymnadenia
conopsea, amounting to over a hundred
on the southern bank of Anchor Bottom where
the Horseshoe Vetch
was still flowering (almost all was
gone) with at least three plants in flower. Some of the Fragrant
Orchids were fading and others were budding,
but I think generally they were past their best.

7
June 2015

Undoubtably
the highlight of the morning was the early discovery of a solitary Bee
Orchid on a road verge in north Shoreham,
on a lawn it has not been reported from before. It had only just pushed
itself up and started flowering.

6 June
2015

Common
Spotted Orchids

12
May 2015

Green-winged
Orchids

19
June 2014

Common
Spotted Orchid(pale
form)

Pyramidal
Orchid

Southern
Marsh Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchid

Southern
Marsh Orchid

Pyramidal
Orchid

Three
species of orchid
were seen on the Mill Hill Cutting SW bank:
Common
Spotted Orchid, Pyramidal Orchid
and Southern
Marsh Orchid. Bee
Orchids were not seen on the verge in Mill
Hill Drive.

4 May
2014Scores
of pretty Green-winged Orchids
were strewn amongst the cow pats
on the southern north-facing bank of Anchor Bottom (chalk downs at Upper
Beeding). All of them were purple
in colour. These were the first orchids
seen this year.

1
July 2013Two
Large
Skippers either fighting or courting over
the overgrown path along the south bank of the Slonk
Hill Cutting was the highlight of a brief detour on a humid late afternoon.
The notable feature of the open road embankment were the thousands
of fading Common Spotted Orchids
and the appearance of the first Pyramidal
Orchids.

Crab Spider on
Pyramidal
Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchids

Pyramidal
Orchid

Slonk
Hill Cutting (south)

27
June 2013

Southern
Marsh Orchid

Southern
Marsh Orchid

Pyramidal
Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchid

Mill
Hill Cutting (SW)

15
June 2013

Common
Spotted Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchid

Common
Spotted Orchids

Pyramidal
Orchid

Buckingham
Cutting (south)

14
June 2013A
sudden spell of sunshine after midday
was unexpected after the recent poor weather. There
were flowers seen for the first time
this year including about seven Southern
Marsh Orchids, Dactylorhiza
praetermissa, on
the Mill Hill Cutting (south) and the first
Common
Spotted Orchids in the same area.

The
sky filled with clouds before midday and
the butterflies
went into hiding. It needed a careful look to spot the first of the tiny
Small
Blue Butterflies this year, amongst the flowering
Kidney Vetch on the southern bank of the Buckingham
Cutting, where the Spotted Orchids
were beginning to flower

11
May 2012

Green-winged
Orchids

Hundreds
of pretty Green-winged Orchids
were strewn amongst the cow pats
on the southern north-facing bank of Anchor
Bottom (chalk downs at Upper Beeding). All of them were purple
in colour. These were the first orchids
seen this year.

If
this identification is correct, this orchid would be a new addition to
the local list.

2 June
2009A
dozen or so Bee Orchids
were in flower on the verge of Mill
Hill Drive, Old Shoreham, and the first Pyramidal
Orchid of the year was seen on the on
the Coastal Link Cyclepath south of Upper Beeding
with a solitary Common Spotted Orchid nearby.

4 June
2008There
were the first sign of a few flowering
Pyramidal Orchids on the open bank of
the Slonk Hill Cutting.

1
June 2008Four
Green-winged
Orchids were seen on the Mill
Hill Cutting southern bank for the first recorded in the Shoreham boundaries.
The patterns were much paler than usual. Hundreds of Spotted
Orchids were in flower on the southern
bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting, but there appeared
to be less than normal.

16
May 2008The
beginnings of a floweringSpotted
Orchid were spotted on the south side
of the Slonk Hill Cutting.

10
May 2008With
considerable dismay I noted that the Bee
Orchid colony in Mill Hill Road seems
to have been deliberately destroyed. It seems to have been more than just
mown as it was levelled to remove some of the top soil. I have seen this
happen on horse pastures. It is possible that the orchids could even survive
this drastic measure.

As
the only other site known in Shoreham, a private pasture next to the Waterworks
House has been covered in chalk spoil, it
is likely that this orchid is now extinct in Shoreham. The culprits are
unknown. The patch is shown on the photograph above on the far right. It
is very likely just to have been heavily mown. One Bee
Orchid has been discovered before
on the verges of the Coastal Link Cyclepath
at Upper Beeding.

26
April 2008My
first orchids of 2008 were
frequent Green-winged Orchids
pushing up from the southern side turf on Anchor
Bottom.

20
April 2008Early
Purple Orchids were in flower at Tottington
Woods near Small Dole.

26
August 2007On
a half an hour trek on the southern (north-facing) slopes of Anchor
Bottom (Dacre Garden entrance), Upper Beeding, I stumbled over
the first
Autumn Lady's Tresses
of 2007, and
there were half a dozen of these small easily overlooked orchids in a small
area and were probably only a small proportion of a much larger number
in the same general area the other orchids were found.

17
June 2007The
Bee
Orchids on the verge of Mill Hill Drive
were now wrinkled and past their best. There were only a handful seen still
in flower, although I expect I would have discovered more if I searched
them out.

12
June 2007In
the breezy (Force 5)
warm (>21.9 ºC)
sunshine, butterflies
were blown about considerably. A detour to Anchor
Bottom recorded 48 Fragrant Orchids
were seen in approximately the same area that the Green-winged
Orchids are found earlier in the year. This
area (measured at 3 acres)
was on the south (north-facing) bank to Anchor
Bottom and contains evidence of cattle
use.

8 June
2007Two
Fragrant
Orchids, Gymnadenia conopsea, were
seen in flower for the first time this year on Anchor
Bottom. This species is infrequent locally and the large expanse of
Anchor Bottom and nearby fields are it only known location covering well
over a hundred acres. They are recorded only occasionally and finding two
in the shelter of a large Hawthorn was exceptional.A single
flowering
Bee Orchid
stalk was noticed in the long grass and herb meadow verge of the Downs
Link Cyclepath just south of the Cement Works. A few Pyramidal
Orchids were beginning. On the southern
bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting there were the
expected hundreds of Common Spotted Orchids
but
there did not seem to be as many as in previous years.

5
June 2007A
half a dozen or so Bee Orchid
stalks were in flower on the verge in Mill
Hill Road. A few Pyramidal Orchids
were beginning including one on the lower
slopes of Mill Hill.

3 June
2007A
single Pyramidal Orchid
was seen in flower on the grassy verges next to the Downs Link Cyclepath
just south of the Cement Works. A few hundred
Common Spotted Orchidswere
seen on the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting.
They were ahead of the peak flowering period.

25
May 2007The
first
Bee Orchid
of the year was seen on the verge in Mill Hill
Road.

20
May 2007The
first Common Spotted Orchids (one
seen in full flower and others budding) were
seen on the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting.

1 May
2007Under
the Beech on
Lancing
Ring, there was a patch of Early Purple
Orchids, Orchis
mascula, but they looked well past
their best.

29
April 2007There
must have been at least a hundred Green-winged
Orchids, Orchis
morio, in the acre on the southern
side at the Dacre Gardens western entrance. I saw one pale almost white
flower.

20
April 2007On
an almost barren hillside, apart from the rough grasses, wet and dry cow
pats, very frequent Dandelions,
occasional Field Speedwell
the first Green-winged Orchids of
the yearwere
pushing up from the southern side turf on Anchor
Bottom.

11
September 2006Autumn
Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes spiralis,
(an orchid) were again spotted in flower. I did not count the plants.

6 September
2006On
a humid day the first Autumn Gentian
and Autumn Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes
spiralis, (an orchid) were spotted
in flower on the upper part of Mill Hill
(just north of the Reservoir). These are both small plants
that can only be seen in the short sward.

20 June
2006

There
were hundreds of Common Spotted
Orchids on the southern grassy area
of the south bank of Slonk Hill Cutting as
usual. Most of them were the normal mauve to purple with distinctly spotted
leaves at the base of the plant, but there could have been 3% that were
white with leaf spots that could be noticed but they were not nearly so
clear.

15
June 2006With
wild
flowers bursting into flower everywhere, the highlight was about a
hundred
Bee Orchids
amongst the grasses, Ox-eye Daises,
Red
Clovers and
Buttercups
and both Hop Trefoil and
Black Medick in Mill Hill Drive, north Shoreham.

8 June
2006A
Common
Spotted Orchid was seen on Lancing
Ring Nature Reserve.

On the
southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting both
Common
Spotted Orchids and Pyramidal
Orchids were beginning to flower. On the
Coastal
Link Cyclepath, one or two Common Spotted
Orchids were flowering.

29
May 2006

On the
southern grass embankment of Slonk Hill the
first handful of Spotted Orchids
were flowering, but there were scores, probably hundreds, where the spotted
leaves could be seen, but the flowers had not appeared yet.

10 May
2006

Over a
hundred Green-winged Orchids
were scattered in isolation over the southern (north-facing) slopes of
Anchor
Bottom (north of the Cement Works).

Green-winged
Orchid with Cow Pat

Green-winged
Orchids in-situ

Green-winged
Orchids, Orchis morio

It
was difficult to ascertain their numbers because the extent of their spread
was not ascertained. There seemed to be several hundred.

14
September 2005After
a search lasting ten minutes, I could not find the Autumn
Lady's Tresses,Spiranthes spiralis,
in the same area as yesterday.Mill
Hill Reservoir Page

13
September 2005

I am
not surprised that I missed theAutumn
Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes spiralis,
on previous visits as this orchid is very much smaller than expected and
already past its best. There were three plants seen in the short grass
just north of the Reservoir on Mill Hill.

The
habitat was similar (but not identical) to the lower slopes with prostrate
Horseshoe
Vetch leaves and the following other plants in flower:
Autumn
Gentian,
Eyebright,
Stemless
Thistle, Round-headed
Rampion, Scabious,
Milkwort,
Yellow
Wort, Carline Thistle and
Bird's
Foot Trefoil in the short herb (with Plantain
and Burnet Saxifrage leaves) and grass area. There were lots of rabbit
droppings and three ant's
nests.

24
June 2005

Common
Spotted Orchids 2005Dactylorhiza
fuchsii

13
June 2005

Orchids
in Shoreham

Bee
Orchids, Orchis apifera, were
growing tall in the long grass verges with Red
Clover at the junction of Mill Hill Road (leads
to Mill Hill) and Mill Hill Close.

11
May 2005The
green orchid-like Common Twayblade, Listera
ovata,
was growing on the verges just north of Beeding Hill car
park beside the path on the way to Golding Barn. This all green plant can
be quite difficult to discover.

Report
by Jim Hoare (Sussex Downsman)

8
-13 May 2005Hundreds
of Green-winged Orchids
are flowering at Anchor Bottom, near Upper
Beeding, on the eastern bank. There were not as many as in previous years.
When the orchids are over there is not a trace of them to see, no stalk
or leaves.

9
June 2004Bee
Orchids appeared in the horse's field
immediately to the west of the entrance of the Waterworks House, Old Shoreham
(at the foot of Mill Hill). This area does
always display these orchids as sometimes the grass and herbs are grazed
too much.

7
September 2003At
the disused chalkpit near Lancing Clump, the rare Autumn
Ladies Tresses Orchid, Spiranthes spiralis,
was in full flower in the same spot where I had previously seen it.

The
Early
Purple Orchids, Orchis
mascula, made a fine show under the
canopy of Lancing Clump.
9 June 2004Bee
Orchids in the horse's field immediately
to the west of the entrance of the Waterworks House, Old Shoreham (at the
foot of Mill Hill). In subsequent years
the flora had been grazed down too much and the herbs and orchids
did not appear.